Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Initially, I was going to remark about the carefully wrapped hand that Roy Campanella appears to be systematically undoing. Then I noticed the fellow overlooking the Hall of Fame catcher, and realized that it's longtime Dodger manager Walter Alston. He just looks so young I barely recognized him.

The United Press photo was taken during the early part of the 1954 season when Alston was a rookie manager for the Brooklyn Dodgers. He could not have known at this time that he would eventually lead the club to their first championship the following season, so I imagine the concerned look on his face was filled with thoughts of a doomed rookie campaign.

I'm sure he wondered, "how could the Dodgers manage without their star backstop?"

No worries though, his job would be safe as he guided the team to a 92-62 record. Unfortunately, that wasn't enough to win the division, so they would have to wait 'til next year.

I found the photo on eBay. Check out the auction here. The caption on the reverse says:

"MANAGER MULLS OVER MANGLED MITT. New York: Walter Alston (left).
Brooklyn Dodger Manger looks down at the injured catching hand of Roy
Campanella, his number one backstop, in the dressing room before the
start of the May 11 night game between Flatbush's Faithful and the
Milwaukee Braves. Campanella, whose hand was operated on last week, is
in uniform to do some running exercises designed yo keep him in shape
until the injured paw allows him to take up his catching chores again.
The National League's Most Valuable Player in 1953 is expected to
return to duty in about two weeks."

He loves to pitch, loves to learn about pitching, loves to theorize how
he might be able to last with inferior velocity. He read about Greg
Maddux taking ordinary catch sessions seriously, and so he started to,
too.

In the bullpen before his starts, he used to do a standard warmup,
and then he started feeling like he was getting in an inordinate amount
of trouble early. This spring, he increased the intensity of those
bullpens and liked how he felt when games began.

Via Ken Gurnick at MLB.com, "Urias to have elective surgery with Dodgers' support."

"Obviously, one of our main intentions -- independent of the procedure
-- is to protect Julio and limit his workload," said (Gabe) Kapler. "We're
mindful of pitch and innings totals for every pitcher in our
organization. Our aim is to take a long view approach to Julio's
progression with laser sharp focus on long-term health. A blow midseason
made sense to us."

With the trade of Dee Gordon over the winter this should come as no surprise. Via Bill Shaikin at the LA Times, "They've become the no-go Dodgers."

Andrew Friedman: "For us, we don't have as many pure base-stealing threats, but we have a
lot of depth up and down the lineup, so it's even more important for us
not to run into outs. We have eight guys that can really handle the
bat, so the risk-reward isn't there."

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“There’s nothing like wearing a Dodger jersey. There’s nothing like it in sports. I don’t care that I’ve never been anywhere else. I don’t care. There’s nothing like wearing a Dodger jersey.” -- A.J. Ellis